Steve Jobs on Death & Mortality: Follow Your Heart
This clip is an excerpt from a longer recording: Steve Jobs on Connecting the Dots: Three Stories.
What Jobs talks about
Jobs talks about how thinking about death has shaped his decisions for more than thirty years. He says it helps him cut through fear, ego, and outside expectations so he can focus on what truly matters.
He also describes being diagnosed with cancer and told he might have only months to live. That experience makes his advice more urgent: if you remember you are going to die, you are less likely to waste your life living by other people's rules.
The interview also touches briefly on Apple, Macintosh, and why he believes in simplicity, originality, and quality. But the central message is personal: follow your heart and make choices with mortality in mind.
Jobs speaks throughout; Raul briefly introduces and asks questions.
In his words
“For the past thirty three years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I wanna do what I am about to do today?”
“Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life.”
“You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”
“The main inspiration was the nature.”
“In in simple words, simplicity, originally quality, and same.”
Key points
- Remembering death is a tool for making the big choices in life.
- Fear of embarrassment, failure, and external expectations falls away when you face mortality.
- You are already naked, so there is no reason not to follow your heart.
- His cancer diagnosis made the reality of death feel immediate and concrete.
- He connects Apple’s products to simplicity, originality, and quality.
- He says the main inspiration for Apple was the nature of things and making the impossible possible.
Full transcript
For the past thirty three years, I've looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself, if today were the last day of my life, would I wanna do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something. Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 07:30 in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try and tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next ten years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family.
It means to say your goodbyes. Means to say your goodbyes. Hi. My name is Raul, and I am going to interview to Steve Jobs. Welcome, Steve. How are you? Hi, Raul. Fine. And you? Fine too. Well, can you tell me little about... Little bit about you? Yes. Why not? I was born in San Francisco, California in 1955. I was a business owner of Apple that I funded in 1976 in October 2011. Well, thanks.
I will start this interview. Well, where was the inspiration for Hunde, the Apple company? Good question. Fees was staying in a bit and the... And let the people be fierce the world of computers. Do do the impossible to possible and look more that my eyes can be... Well, be visionary. Great, Steve. Okay. When everything is starting the whole company, where... What's the inspiration to create the... An innovation products again? The main inspiration was the nature. This represents simplicity, originality, and free.
The people need quality by the product, and my products gives the consumer quality. Okay. The consumer need originality and quality commitment. The next question is how do you feel after the conclusion of Macintosh? The project Macintosh was successful after or had some files with bad projects. But the bad point was the stolen of... We'll get that when this project finish finish it, he taken the codes and create to see...
Sys... Operating system, Microsoft Windows 1.0. This was in morale. It was terrible, Evan. Sorry. Well, the last question to conclude the interview is what difference between Apple to the competition? In in simple words, please... In simple words, simplicity, originally quality, and same. Well, thanks to you for your time. I want to congratulate for yourself and your life and your company that rise more and more. Thank you. Yeah.
Transcribed from the audio by speech recognition (Deepgram). Timestamps link to the video above. Errors are possible.